Why Are Geographic Information Systems Hard to Use?

Abstract

Geographic Information System (GIS) software evolved out of the fields of geography, cartography, and database management. As a result, off-the-shelf GIS software requires the user to have or to acquire considerable knowledge of these fields. Navigation through the interfaces of most off-the-shelf GIS software is difficult because they support a system architecture view, rather than a view of the user's work. These problems are compounded for users with little computing experience. In many workplaces, a single technical user becomes the local GIS expert, and acts as a surrogate for other users who have neither the expertise to use the software nor the resources to acquire that expertise. In this paper, we summarize our analysis of what makes GIS so hard to use, and describe our research directions toward designing effective GIS software for non-specialist users.